This is a killer. I think Elias will get almost the same type of deal as Richards, unfortunately not from the Devils.

This reminds me alot of last offseason with Niedermayer and Rafalski. Lou can't sign Nieds settles for Rafalski. This time its Elias or Langenbrunner, Lou can't afford Elias and will keep Langenbrunner. We are constantly settling for the second tier player and instead of being a contender I think we'll be lucky to make the playoffs next year.

It's time like this that makes me appreciate Stevens and Brodeur, even more than I already do. Two superstars taking less than market value just to stay with Devils. Very rare.

Oh boy, the not making the playoffs talk next season is already starting to come out. Can't people wait until at least halfway into next season before making that wrong prediction, like this season?

I love Patty but if he is asking more than $6 million a season I would let him walk, no single NHL player in a salary cap era is worth it.

It would depend on how your team was set up. If you had a lot of good young players then you could afford to overpay for a veteran as long as you made his contract expiring be at the same time as your good young players contracts coming due as well. So for that situation a player could be worth over 6 million dollars to that team.

Edited by Devils731, 22 May 2006 - 03:07 PM.

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Your unconditional rejection of violence makes you smugly think of yourselves as noble, as enlightened, but in reality it is nothing less than abject moral capitulation to evil. Unconditional rejection of self-defense, because you think its a supposed surrender to violence, leaves you no resort but begging for mercy or offering appeasement.

-Terry Goodkind

Sex Panther cologne -- 50 percent of the time, it works every time.

-Anchorman

The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.

See, when I head Feaster give a talk at my alma mater, he seemed very intelligent and like he was a shrewd businessman.

Scratch that, now.

Maybe he has a trade worked out for Richards already and plans to land this anchor of a contract on another team....ok, probably not.

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Your unconditional rejection of violence makes you smugly think of yourselves as noble, as enlightened, but in reality it is nothing less than abject moral capitulation to evil. Unconditional rejection of self-defense, because you think its a supposed surrender to violence, leaves you no resort but begging for mercy or offering appeasement.

-Terry Goodkind

Sex Panther cologne -- 50 percent of the time, it works every time.

-Anchorman

The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.

maybe more guys will be like Marty and settle for less to stay somewhere they REALLy love...lmao in a perfect world...NOT A CHANCE!!

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I think this shows the salary cap cycle we will see.... if the Devs can get back to their old system, they are fine.

The salary cap era will have teams rotating from celler dwellers to pretenders, to bottom 4, to top 4, to bottom 4, to pretenders to celler dwellers... repeat.

The only way to compete is to have a strong young players coming from your farm. The best way to ensure that is to get high draft picks... Once your draft picks start performing (For cheap) you can sign top-end talent and win a cup (but get crappy draft picks relatively). As the team gets older and more experienced (Nieds, Gomez, Gio, Elias, etc), they will gradually leave for a team with the younger players with the cap space to sign a top end talent. NJ will fall into the cellar, collect the draft picks, and repeat.

If NJ can return to getting steals in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and later rounds, NJ can break the cycle and stay how they have been for the past 10 years -- a steady force. As players leave, we replace them from the farm and then we get the late season acuisition to compliment the team. But if we arent get draft steals, we can't sustain as an elite team forever, we have to visit the cellar and bounce back.

i thought the market for guys like richards or elias would be around 6 mil to 6.5 especially with thornton and iggy signing for 6.66 and 7 million...guess that doesnt matter anymore.

i can offer a thought of optimism though...although it might not be exactly the same, becuase it deals with goalies
khabibulin signed for a boatload and i thought that might break the market, but brodeur ended up signing for 5.2, granted brodeur signed under, but i think turco, puffy, and theodore all signed for around 5 million

Edited by bruins4777, 22 May 2006 - 05:49 PM.

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Hahahaha...long overdue. Now they need to get rid of Jacobs.

The problem is, NJ only plays them 4 times a year. We were only able to get them to trade JT and fire the idiot GM. If we played them 8 times a year, maybe Jacobs might have an epiphany and sell the team.

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“They’re the ones that makes it happen,” Lemaire said. “It’s not us. It’s not me. It’s not the other guy. It’s not the guy before. It’s not the guy after. It’s them. And they have to take care of business.”
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"I guess I just miss my friend" (#28)

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“They’re the ones that makes it happen,” Lemaire said. “It’s not us. It’s not me. It’s not the other guy. It’s not the guy before. It’s not the guy after. It’s them. And they have to take care of business.”
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"I guess I just miss my friend" (#28)